"I was born into violence": Coline Berry reiterates incest accusations against her father, Richard Berry, and provokes the anger of her stepmother

On Wednesday, April 29, Coline Berry was questioned before the National Assembly as part of the inquiry into incestuous sexual violence. While she again accused her father of incest, his wife responded to her on Instagram.

“Coming here means accepting to return to parts of oneself that one has spent one's life trying to avoid,” Coline Berry told members of parliament. On Wednesday, April 29, the daughter of Richard Berry and Catherine Hiegel was questioned by the parliamentary inquiry into incestuous sexual violence. In January 2021, she filed a complaint with the Paris public prosecutor, accusing her father and her then-stepmother, Jeane Manson, of rape, sexual assault, and corruption of a minor. Before the National Assembly, she reiterated her accusations of incest against her father.

“I was a victim of paternal incest as a child. I didn’t have a protective mother, and I only sought justice as an adult,” she says. “I was born into violence. Even before I was born, my father smashed my mother’s head against a sink, then he beat her when she was seven months pregnant. He punched her in the stomach and perforated her eardrum. I came into the world surrounded by this violence.” She also recounts being the victim of a certain “psychological control.” In her family, or rather in “her clan,” as she prefers to call it, “silence about the violence was the rule.” During her testimony, Coline Berry explains that she tried to talk about it at the age of three. “I spoke with my body; I imitated on my mother the actions my father inflicted on me. It was my way of expressing myself,” she says. "She confronted him and his response was to insult her. So I learned from the age of three that saying things isn't enough."

"I grew up without any sense of intimacy."

Coline Berry then describes "repeated rapes, almost every weekend, my father's penis in my mouth like a trumpet or a flute." "Even today, I still remember the smell, the sensations, the images, traces that remain and won't fade," she adds. "But incest isn't just a moment, it's an atmosphere. It's a slow, pervasive, constant infiltration. There were the gestures, the kisses, the tickling, the forced games. But there was also the lack of modesty, the nudity, the open doors, the exposed bodies, including during sexual relations. I grew up without any sense of intimacy, without boundaries, without protection." She then recounts how she tried to protect herself from these acts: at 10 years old, she stopped eating during school holidays so that her father would take her back to her mother's. "So I wouldn't have to see him anymore," she explains. “To stop these rapes. (…) I had also woven a net around my bed to prevent him from approaching at night. When I think back on it today, what strikes me is how alone I was in those moments, trying to save my own life.” She explains that she tried to talk to her pediatrician at the time, who wanted to report it. But her mother objected “out of fear.” “My word against the word of a well-known, powerful man whose beatings she has never been able to forget,” adds Romain Rojtman’s wife.

READ ALSO: Outraged, Marilou Berry and Vahina Giocante offer their support to Coline Berry after her court appearance

"We speak when we feel protected."

Before the members of parliament, she recounted that she had tried to speak out at the age of 20 and again at 38, to confront him. But Richard Berry's only response was to threaten to disown her. "I was caught in a bond, a bond that imprisons, a hold, and from which I had to break free. But breaking free means severing ties with the clan. It's a huge act, especially for a child. (...) We only speak out when we feel protected or when we imagine we will be," Coline Berry explained. She then recounted that throughout her life she had encountered violent men and that she had also been raped by her riding instructor at the age of 14, "because incest leads to repetition." In 2021, when she filed a complaint, an investigation was opened. But it was ultimately dismissed on August 31, 2022, due to the statute of limitations.

She explains, however, that over time new evidence has come to light and also mentions that her half-sister, Mila Berry Louange, from the marriage between Richard Berry and Pascale Louange, was also questioned by the authorities when she was eight years old. "She says she doesn't like the spankings he gives her; she describes kisses where they lick each other, where they suck each other up: snail kisses, slug kisses, vacuum cleaner kisses. Eight years old—I ask you to consider what that means. Consider what it means to lick someone's cheek, their hand. Being licked by your child at eight years old is not a game. To say that it isn't sexual is the most blatant denial, and yet the Juvenile Protection Unit considered it not to be concerning."

"The line has clearly been crossed."

Upon discovering the mention of her daughter in Coline Berry's testimony, Pascale Louange was quick to react. Richard Berry's wife published a lengthy post on Instagram denouncing her stepdaughter's remarks. "STOP! Coline Berry, you've clearly crossed the line. That line is my daughter. The one you call your 'half-sister' to appear empathetic, even though her arrival was unbearable to you because she was going to 'disrupt your family's genealogy,' to the point of writing about it in emails while I was pregnant," she wrote. "You're going way too far, Coline. You've been convicted twice by the courts, and you continue to maintain a victim mentality based solely on your own lies—lies you've ended up believing." Indeed, Coline Berry was sued for defamation by her former stepmother, Jeane Manson, before being acquitted by the Lyon Court of Appeal in July 2024. In her message, Pascale Louange stated that her daughter, Mila, was a "happy and fulfilled child." "I ask you to definitively leave my daughter out of your delusions," she added.

"Not for a single second did I doubt you."

In the second part of this open letter, she continued by defending her husband and praising his "courage" in remaining silent for the past five years. "I could have run away, left you. But not for a single second did I doubt you. (...) I didn't leave because I spent time with your daughter Coline and I sadly realized that she was capable of lying about anything and everything, and worse still, of convincing herself of her own lies and therefore being persuasive," she declared. Pascale Louange then explained that Coline Berry would not approve of her relationship with the actor, particularly because of their age difference. "In her eyes, I was necessarily mercenary and, to top it off, stupid. What was she basing this on, if not a cliché: that of the younger woman with a famous man?" she wrote. "The idea that we could simply love each other was foreign to her." During our meetings, I sensed a palpable animosity.

In her message, she loudly and clearly affirmed her belief in Richard Berry's innocence and her conviction that he is not "a pervert." She described him as an "attentive, present, and caring" father. "I also know that the majority of people never believed this sordid story. And those who are rejoicing today in your misfortune, using this false accusation, are doing so for other reasons, out of resentment, to settle other scores," she added. "Even those who don't like you know that you are incapable of harming your child, any child." She concluded her message with a simple "I love you" to her husband.